


and when i left the light, you were still my shadow

by collidethescope



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Calum is barely here, Fluff, I love close friends to love relationships so, Luke even less, M/M, Mashton, The timeline is kinda weird ik, here you go
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-01
Updated: 2014-08-01
Packaged: 2018-02-11 07:16:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2058912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/collidethescope/pseuds/collidethescope
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You were always there."</p>
            </blockquote>





	and when i left the light, you were still my shadow

**Author's Note:**

> I decided we needed more Mashton so I did this. Forgive me?

The sun burst through eleven year old Michael Clifford's blinds as he groaned and rolled over, hiding his face in his pillows. "Michael, I swear, if you're not awake by now," his mother trailed off as she entered his room. "Oh good, you are," she smiled sweetly, "so you can go shower and get downstairs. Your friends are waiting," she finished, smacking his leg playfully. Michael huffed, annoyed and confused. Friends? He could only think of...Ashton. That's the only friend that knew where he lived. He rolled his eyes. Of course Ashton would wake him up at, he looks at his clock, noon. Wow, noon. Well it was Saturday.

He showers lazily and puts on black jeans and matching tank top before going downstairs to meet Ashton's megawatt grin. They shout goodbye to Michael's mum and Ashton drags the pale boy out of the house excitedly. They start walking along the pavement with Ashton leading and Michael looks down at his friend's red jeans and snorts. "Hello to you too weirdo," he laughs.

"Don't be rude," Ashton glares playfully before pushing his hair out of his eyes. He throws his arm over Michael and pulls him into his side, earning a groan.

"Why are you so happy? It's way too early to be so happy."

"I'm always happy, and besides, it's like midday. You've literally missed half of the day."

"Whatever," Michael mumbles, "where are you taking me?" Ashton's smile widens,if possible, and he winks at his friend, whose skin flushes prettily under the attention. He doesn't answer the question as he's too caught up watching the pink spread across Michael's face, down to his exposed collarbone. He shakes his head and clears his throat, pulling his companion with more fervor to their destination.

After what felt like forever to both boys, for different reasons, Ashton stops and gestures to...well Michael's not quite sure what he gestures to. He looks around and he sees what he thinks might be a bench but he's not sure anyone can sit on it anymore. He turns and sees a mermaid statue standing in what appears to be a fountain but the brilliant blue paint that seemed to once cover it now flakes off onto the ground. He walks over to the fountain and is surprised that there is actual water in it despite the place looking abandoned and despite the heat. He looks into the fountain again and closely inspects the water which seems to be green and he cringes.

"Ash?" he asks as he turns to see said boy rolling up his pants. He catches on quickly enough and starts shaking his head. "Oh no. There's no way you're gonna get me to put my precious feet in there. I could probably...I don't know...die." Ashton laughs rolling his eyes and walks over.

"You won't die drama queen, the water's fine. Look," he says going to dip his toe in but Michael grabs him backwards before he can. "Michael!"

"I know I say I hate you but I don't actually want your toes to like, fall off." Ashton stares at him, incredulously before laughing and bending over to catch his breath, making Michael pout. He looks up and smiles so much at the cute boy beside him that his eyes crinkle adorably. He surprises Michael with a hug before pulling back and grinning at him.

"I knew you loved me," he says simply before going over and sticking his feet in the cool water and wiggling his toes. He looks back at Michael, going a bit cross eyed, who is rolling up his pants reluctantly. He eventually comes over and sits next to Ashton and timidly adds one foot and then the other. He turns, grinning, to Ashton who already has a smile waiting because he is literally sunshine and is always smiling, Michael thinks.

 

After a few minutes of silence, Michael shifts closer to Ashton and rests his head on his shoulder. "What are we doing here Ashton?" The boy doesn't answer at first, just looks around at his surroundings and tries to gather his thoughts and feelings into words. There's just a lot that he feels, especially concerning Michael but he doesn't know how to identify anything. Finally, he sighs.

"I'm not actually sure. I just- I just needed to get away for a bit but I didn't wanna be alone, you know?" He smiles before continuing, "and I know how much you love me, so I decided to treat you with my presence." He looks down at his friends who scoffs and begins to laugh a laugh he can feel go through their growing bodies.

"I wouldn't quite say your presence is a treat," Michael says, sitting up to smirk. Ashton turns and looks right into his matching eyes.

"I don't believe you." Michael watches Ashton who has his eyebrow raised and tries to contain his smile but can't, not when his best friend is staring at him like an idiot.

"Oh you don't?" He replies, the smile taking away from whatever threatening tone he tried to infuse.

"Nope, not a bit!" he finishes while pushing Michael into the fountain. He's laughing so hard that he doesn't even notice that he's soaking wet until he glances up at Michael's face which is red with laughter. He frowns a bit and looks down to see that he fell into the fountain with Michael due to their hooked legs. "I hate you," he childishly grumbles.

Michael throws water on his pretty hair, which is curling more than ever and smiles back, "Nah, you don't."

When Ashton walks Michael back home, they're almost finished drying and he smiles at Michael's mum so largely that they wouldn't have gotten in trouble even if they were still soaking.

 

Monday morning, Michael meets Calum at the school gate with a red-tipped nose and a box of tissues. Calum smiles kindly but grimaces a little at his friends pale complexion. "What happened to you?" Michael doesn't know how to respond but he doesn't want to lie to Calum so he just shrugs.

"I got it from a friend I hung out with on Saturday," and punctuates his excuse with a sneeze. Calum laughs fondly and sympathetically at the frown and sniffle that follow the sneeze and grabs his arm, pulling him to class.

"Come on pal."

 

******

 

Michael is officially fifteen now. It's been a whole day since his birthday, which he spent in school with Calum, and he feels he's settled into the age quite nicely. He's pretty innocent for his age, but he thinks he can deal. He's looking through his closet to find clothes for Sarah's party, a friend of his and Ashton's, when his bedroom door slams open and close. "Knocking is still a thing though," he grumbles without looking to see who it is.

"And when have I ever knocked?" the person replies making Michael roll his eyes. Ashton.

"You're right, you have zero manners," he says, pulling a denim jacket from below his other clothes. He looks Ashton up and down, when he turns around, and nods. "Trying to impress someone?"

"Depends. Are you impressed?" Michael stares for a while, then pushes him over so he falls on the bed and pulls on the jacket.

"Let's go loser face," he says, turning to walk out of the room, but Ashton grabs his elbow and drags him into the bathroom. "Wha-"

"We can't leave without mirror pics, obviously," Ashton smiles, holding up his phone to take the pictures. Michael poses, grudgingly, and walks out when they're finished.

"Ashton come oonnn."

"I don't like this one. Well I mean you look great in all, but I hate my hair in this one." Michael sighs and looks at the picture Ashton is referring to.

"You look great, don't sweat it."

"Mikeyyy-"

"Your hair is fine," he ends, looking at Ashton's straightened hair. He smiles at the beautiful boy subconsciously and grabs his hand to leave.

 

It's been maybe two hours (Ashton's lost track of time taking pictures with everyone) when he spots Michael sitting with a drink in his hand between two girls. He would leave him alone except the boy looks pale with worry and stress so he figures he should go over and help him out. "Hey Mike, hi girls," he smiles, making the girls swoon at his cute hair and dimples. "Can I borrow him for a second?" He winks when they nod and Michael gets up to follow him to a quieter corner. "Bro, what are you doing? They're all over you!" He watches as Michael shrugs and stares somewhere else. Snapping his fingers in front his face, he whisper-yells, "Michael!"

"I wasn't interested," he mumbles and Ashton can tell he's lying. If Michael wasn't interested, he would've been acting normally, not nervous like he is now.

"We tell each other everything, right?" Michael looks at him then, and Ashton is a little confused to see how small he looks in that moment.

"I thought she was gonna kiss me," Michael mumbles to the ground and Ashton scoffs.

"Of course she was! She likes you!"

"I didn't know what to do. I was...scared. I didn't wanna mess up." Michael is breathing heavily now, from embarrassment, and just when Ashton is about to reassure him, he pulls away and runs right out of Sarah's house. Ashton is startled for a moment but then runs after him calling his name. They run right back to Michael's house and right up to his room before they both collapse on his bed.

"What. Was. That. Why'd you run away from me?" Ashton yells, then regrets it when he sees Michael curl into himself. "Wait no. Mikey, why didn't you just say something or, I don't know."

"It's humiliating. I'm fifteen and I've never kissed anybody. And I'm scared to kiss someone in case I screw up. Great." Ashton hums and then there's silence as they both stare up at the ceiling. "Would you teach me how to do it?"

Bro, that's gay," he tries to joke but it falls flat when there's no response.

"Yeah me too." Ashton snaps his neck to look at Michael who's already looking back at him, warily awaiting his reaction.

Ashton swallows, "Seriously?"

Shrugging, Michael replies, "I think so. I mean not really. I might be bi? I really wanted to kiss one of those girls but I wanted to kiss Sarah's brother too. So..." he trails off. Michael still looks nervous and shaken up so Ashton pulls him into an awkwardly angled hug and smiles into his shoulder.

"You still have to tell me about all your crushes, you butthole," he finishes making Michael gasp and squeeze him even tighter.

"I love you."

"Yeah I know. So who else knows?"

"Nobody, just you and mum. But I don't care if people know. I just wanted to admit it to you first."

"You can tell me anything. We're practically brothers by now."

"Is that how you plan to get away from my gay love because I can do incest, **brother** ," Michael teases, dropping a kiss on Ashton's cheek.

"You asswipe, stop," Ashton laughs as they start a tickle war.

 

 

"So, I'm bi." Michael greets Calum first thing Monday morning feigning casualness but really nervous about his reaction.

"Hello bi, I'm Calum," the darker boy laughs and Michael knows that they'll be ok, even as he shoves him to the ground and laughs along with him.

 

******

 

"So we've booked a gig, but we have no drummer. Solutions?" Luke asks, running his hand through his already disheveled hair. Calum shakes his head and scratches at his bicep nervously. "Michael what about you? Any drummer friends?"

Michael begins to shake his head but stops abruptly, "Actually..." he starts, gaining everyone's attention. "Hold on, let me make a call," he walks away smiling back at Luke, who's grinning at him. "Hi sunshine, I have a proposition for you. Remember that band I told you I joined? Yeah, well we need a drummer for a gig we've booked. Would you do us the honour, oh talented one?"

He goes back to Calum and Luke who are staring at him hopefully. "He'll be around in a few minutes," he grins.

True to his word, Ashton shows up ten minutes later and Michael rushes to open the door only to be greeted with a kiss from Ashton, who's blushing spectacularly. He stands shocked and Ashton pulls him towards his room after whispering, "We'll talk later?"

Everyone loves Ashton, no surprise and they beg him to join the band permanently to which he agrees. He likes the boys and he likes Michael so he thinks it'll be fun. Calum and Luke are leaving now and Ashton is getting nervous because he's going to have to talk to Michael about the kiss now. The door closes for the last time and Michael doesn't wait, just drags Ashton back upstairs, shuts the door and sits on the bed. "It's time to talk. So, what?"

Ashton sighs and joins him on the bed and tries to collect his thoughts. "Ok well, I...first I think. Ok I like you alright? Like, I _like_ like you. I didn't actually mean to kiss you but you answered the door looking so...so beautiful and I just had to."

"Beautiful? Wait no. You like me?" Michael squeaks.

"Yeah," he blushes again, "I don't know when it started happening but I was just happier to get your texts and your calls and I starting wishing that you wouldn't have anymore crushes because I wanted you to like me and when you had your first kiss I was super upset because I remembered when you asked me to teach you and I wished I had been your first," he rushes out and Michael grabs his hand.

"I think you should breathe first. There you go. And secondly, finally!"

Ashton stares confused as Michael bites his lip. Finally? "Finally? Yo-you like me back?"

Michael laughs so loudly, projecting his nerves into it. "Of course I do. You're way too pretty and amazing. And you've been my number one since I can remember. It was going to happen. I knew it would've. I just didn't think you would like me back," he finishes meekly.

Ashton looks at the green eyes he's known forever and down to the pink lips he stared at quite a lot of times and thinks, yeah. "You're right. You were always there. You...I had to like you. There's nobody else that would've worked." He jumps across to hug him and pulls away slowly. Michael glances up at him with a small smile.

"Can I kiss you properly?" and Michael rolls his eyes. Ashton laughs; he kinda knew he didn't have to ask. He leans in and kisses his best friend who responds quickly and Ashton feels his skin heat up with the rush of emotion in the kiss. After their little eternity, they pull apart and Michael smiles down at Ashton who rushes to hide his face in Michael's chest. He giggles and lifts Ashton's head gently with his hands and presses gentle kisses all over his face playfully.

They change, giddily, giggling all the way back to bed. When they finally lay down for the night, Michael turns and presses his face into Ashton's neck and leaves a kiss there. "I totally love you though," he hears Ashton say and he knows he doesn't have to respond but he does anyway.

"I love you too though. My forever number one."

Ashton smiles into the dark, "My number one forever."

**Author's Note:**

> So I know it doesn't actually follow what happened with them irl (obv) so. Thank you if you read/comment/leave kudos :) x


End file.
